How Are You Stepping into the New Year?

There’s a woman in my Zumba class who is always off beat. If we go left she goes right. If we go right, she goes left. Consistently. It’s like the signals from her brain are taking the scenic route to her limbs. We’re moving through air and she is struggling through Kryptonite.

Or maybe gravity is different on her home planet.

She’s either moving too slow or too fast. The latter frightens me because her arms and legs are everywhere in a flurry of unsynchronized moves that only remotely resemble what the rest of us are doing. I always think she’s gonna hurt herself or someone next to her.

If it sounds like I’m making fun of her, I’m not. She’s my favorite person in class. Why? Because she’s in class. Consistently. She does the simplest and yet hardest thing. She shows up.

She knows she’s the Medusa of Dancing: One look at her and you lose the beat too and are frozen in place trying to figure out how to get it back. What she doesn’t do is let that stop her. She doesn’t wait to start channeling her inner Alvin Ailey before she thinks she’s ready for Zumba. She just comes to class.

And I’d like to think that attitude doesn’t stop at the gym. I imagine in other areas of her life she’s giving it her all no matter what other people think, and not worrying about whether or not she’s doing it perfectly. She’s just doing it.

Now, I’m not suggesting that you take your two left feet to a Zumba class near you; (or me. I don’t need another chick flailing around in front of me, throwing off my rhythm and coordination). I am suggesting that you do the simplest and hardest thing: show up for yourself courageously, confidently, and consistently. You don’t always have to know the whole dance in order to make the first move.

So, how are you stepping into the New Year?